The present invention relates to dental articulators in general, and more particularly to improvements in means for separably securing dental models to the arms of dental articulators.
Commonly owned German Pat. No. 32 02 997 discloses a dental articulator wherein each arm carries a fixedly and permanently mounted plate-like support for a detachable dental model which is made from plaster of paris or the like. That side of each support which faces away from the respective arm is provided with elongated protuberances whose height decreases in a direction from the periphery toward the center of the support and which can enter complementary grooves in the adjacent side of the corresponding dental model so that the latter can be repeatedly detached from and reattached to the support in one and the same position. The technique which is disclosed in the German patent is known as "quicksplit system" and has gained widespread acceptance by the makers of artificial dentures. Suitable magnetic means are provided to attract the base of the dental pattern to the support which is affixed to the respective arm of the articulator. The patented invention solves the problems which arise when the dental models are secured to their supports by screws. It has been found that a screw cannot be reapplied with a requisite degree of accuracy which, in the case of dentures, must be in the range of a few thousandths of one millimeter. Renewed mounting of a dental model on the arm of an articulator in one and the same position is of considerable importance for documentation purposes, for examination of dentures and/or for so-called cross mounting.
A problem which still remains to be solved is that of using two or more articulators interchangeably, i.e., of transferring a dental model from one articulator into another without any deviations of the position of the transferred model from an optimum position. This is not possible in presently known articulators due to unavoidable manufacturing tolerances. Thus, even though two or more articulators are produced by the same manufacturer in the same plant and from identical or practically identical parts, certain differences in the mounting of a dental model in two discrete articulators are observable without fail. In other words, at least some differences in the spatial position of a dental model in two discrete articulators or in mutual positions of two dental models which are transferred from a first into a second articulator are bound to exist even though the two articulators are practically identical and stem from the same source. Therefore, if a given dental model is to be reinserted in the same position as before, it is necessary to employ one and the same articulator. This entails a reduction of the utility of articulators and creates additional work because one desiring to reinstall a dental model must keep a record in order to ensure that the model will be reinserted into the articulator in which the model was installed on the previous occasion or occasions.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,092,909 discloses a method of releasably mounting dental models on dental articulators. The structure which is disclosed in this patent exhibits the drawback that its clamping device comprises a substantial number of parts and also that it does not allow for any adjustability of the plaster of paris mounts on the articulator arms with reference to the jaw models and/or vice versa.